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A Career You Didn't Know Existed: Quality Engineering · AccessCo Leaders Career Conversations

• Freire with Fludd Oct 15: Welcome to Access Co Leaders. I'm Heather Carter and today we're join joined by Fioni Flood, quality engineer at DSM Firmenich speaking with students from Freire Tech Charter School. Thanks for being here. Let's jump in. Fioni tell us what does a quality engineer do at DSM Firmenich? Yeah. So DSM Ferminich is a biomedical company. We make medical devices. So as a quality engineer, I'm pretty much I guess a liaison between our customers for our products and then our manufacturing teams who actually create the materials. we do a lot of I guess like non-conformances. So we're basically just checking the quality of the material and the processes, documenting anything that could go wrong, making sure we're in compliance with everything as far as FDA and other sort of standards and regulations that we have to abide by. Yeah, that's pretty much what my day to day looks like. It's a lot of firefighting, but I really enjoy it. Okay. So you're the girl that puts out the fires and knows all the rules. Yes. Yes. Okay. Very cool. So where did you grow up and where are you based now? So I'm originally from the Bronx, New York. I moved to Pennsylvania like twenty years ago with my family and I grew up in the Poconos. I Currently live in Downingtown. I lived in Philly for five years, but then I was offered this job. So I moved to Downingtown, which is like the greater Philadelphia area. It's like near Westchester. and that's where I live now. Okay, cool. So think back to middle and high school. What were some things that you really enjoyed spending your time on? that's a great question. Well, I guess in middle school, middle school is where I really knew that I wanted to do something as like science based, I guess. I knew that when I got to college that I was gonna do a major that had to do with science. I actually ended up majoring biology and I'm getting my masters now in engineering. But during middle school years I really was just enjoying hanging out with my friends. Like I wasn't doing a whole lot other than that. I started getting into sports and stuff. So then in high school I was more of an athlete. So high school was pretty much like all year round. Like I was doing sports and kind of just, you know, hanging out with my friends still. But Okay. What sports did you play? I played volleyball. I did cheerleading, I did tennis and then I tried to do track but it didn't really work my schedule. So I like kind of clean track sometimes, but I it depends on who I'm talking to. Which one was your favorite and what was your position? Ooh, my favorite. I really enjoyed playing tennis, but my favorite is definitely volleyball. I played that also the longest. I did tennis my last year. And because volleyball and tennis were in the same season, I couldn't do both. And I was like, I don't really want to leave high school without having the experience of doing tennis. so volleyball is definitely definitely my favorite and I was a middle hitter. Okay, cool. So you mentioned earlier that middle school was the first time you remember knowing that you wanted to do something in the sciences. Was that the first time that you also remember realizing that you were good at something or that you wanted to get better at it? Something I guess that could help others. Cause I feel like I was good at things, but they were like things that wouldn't really do anything for anyone else. like I I realized when I was young that I was good at singing, but singing wasn't really like it wasn't my passion. I just knew that I was good at it, but it also doesn't really like I guess it can benefit people like music therapy, but that wasn't really something that I was like interested in. So I think yeah, and In middle school is probably when I first realized, this is something that I could actually do to make a difference in my life and other people's lives. Okay, very cool. Lots of cool information there. So we're gonna come to you guys. All right. So, Jaquan, you're first. What question do you have for Fiani? a question that I have was do you think being a quality engineer is a hard thing to I think it takes a lot of discipline. And I think because as like person in quality, quality is like at our company we say quality is everybody's responsibility. So having to be the person that everyone comes to with problems can be difficult if you're not like a problem solver. and also having to be the person that like tells people that they're wrong, like having to correct other people, dealing with different personalities, it's not for everyone. So if you have a problem, I guess, confronting people in a constructive manner. It's probably not a good role for you, but I don't think it's necessarily hard. before I was doing quality engineering, I was in more of like a science like lab space. so transitioning to quality engineering kind of just gave me like a greater understanding of like abstract concepts and like critical thinking. Like this is where I feel like I grew my critical thinking skills and I'm able to really like dissect any problem, get to the root cause, and then find a solution. I don't think it's hard though. I think you just have to train your mind and think a certain way. Cool. Let me ask you. You mentioned that it involves the skill of giving people constructive feedback and not always something that they want to hear. When did you realize that that was a skill that you possessed that everybody wasn't great at? honestly, I don't think I was really good at it early on in my career. Like being more in like the the lab setting, I never really had to like confront people and really like tell them that they're wrong. Like we all kind of worked collaboratively. So I was never like in a role where I had to reach out to someone and be like, Hey, you did this incorrectly. Like, can you fix it? This is what you were supposed to actually do. So I guess In the past maybe three to four years is when I actually realized this is something that one, I have to do and two, I'm like fine-tuning that skill. I got a question for Miss Fioni. what kind of skills or training do you need to become a quality engineer at your company? So at our company, because we're a biomedical company, you do need a four year science based degree. I have my degree in biology and then a few of my other colleagues have their chemistry or engineering degree. So you do need that skill set. And then outside of that, it's you can learn like on the job. It's really it's I feel like a lot of the skills that you learn in school, like you can just apply them to the career. So you won't really outside of school need to do a whole lot of like additional anything curriculars or anything. Okay. Zayir, we'll come to you next my question was what is the biggest struggle you face in this career? And what what helps you move past this? So I think Something that I used to struggle with is definitely critical thinking and like statistical analysis. Cause I was a strong, I guess I wasn't a statistician, but I did take statistics in college. And in order to get to like the root cause of a lot of problems here, you have to do a lot of statistics. You have to analyze the data that you collect. And because I'm a biologist. I don't really look at statistics. I collect data, but I don't like analyze it in the way that you have to do in this role. So that was something that I struggled with for probably the first two years. but obviously, like there's now tools and resources that you can use. Like at our job, we use something called Mini Tab, which is just like a tool that is developed for statistical analysis. That's a tool that helps me to grow in my understanding and then also just reaching out to my colleagues. I feel like A lot of people here, we're all learning at the same pace. And even if we're not, there's always someone that you can reach out to. So it I didn't struggle for long once I figured out like who my resources were and how I can actually like address the problem that I had. Awesome. Harmony, what about you? Hi. my question is what impact do you think you had on the people that you work around? I love that question. I feel like because I'm like I don't want to necessarily call myself a people person. Like I feel people have addressed me and approached me and told me that like I'm very personable person. but people My colleagues specifically have told me that I'm very warm and welcoming. So I'm able to listen to them, give constructive feedback again, but also be unbiased. I feel like that's something that I pride myself on. I want to hear all sides of every problem and everyone's approach and how they think that anything has gone. So I feel like being unbiased helps me to be like an active listener and be like a someone that people can confide in. I feel like that's probably what my colleagues would say. Awesome, I love that. A naturally curious person, it sounds like. Yeah. All right. Before I come back to you, Jaquan, I just I was thinking about it, Fionni. And what exactly, I know you've mentioned biomedical. You mentioned a four-year science degree. What is it that you guys are making at DSM? Yeah, so we manufacture quite a few medical devices. we have a I think eight product technologies. we have like polymers, collagens. So I think one of our biggest sellers, like we make devices that are for like glucose monitoring. So like if you have obviously diabetes, they have the DEXCOM injectables. We make components that go into those. We make scaffolds for like hearts, we make bone void fillers, we make a bunch of different products to be honest. Wow, that's really interesting. I got so engrossed in thinking about it. Cool. All right. All right. Students, I'm coming back to you. Jaquan, you're first. do you think this position will be needed in the ongoing years? yes, definitely. I've this is like a career that I feel like will never really die out. Like I think, I said, qualities integrated into everything. everything that you produce, it has to be quality. you hear quality for everything. You have to make it and you have to make it well and you have to make it how the customer needs it. but quality engineering I don't think is going anywhere. This is a field that I feel like it's it's gonna be around for a long time. And I feel like because it's also has components of like regulatory within it, like compliance aspects, I think that's that feeds into it as well because obviously State, federal, we all have guidelines that we have to abide by. So without the guidelines going anywhere, this role is also not going to go anywhere. So and Zyaire and Andre, I you guys had your hand raised, but I started to think, Fiani, AI. So it sounds like your position. Somebody could maybe find a way for AI to make some of those things. But then how does the quality engineer person fit in? with AI? Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like I guess with the surgence of AI, there are ways to like automate processes. Like our site specifically is looking into more automation of processes, which could potentially have an impact on like headcount as far as like operations or production t personnel. But as far as like quality in engineering, interacting with AI, I think We're always we're like the the fact checkers. We're like the what I would yeah. Yeah. So there's always gonna have to be an actual person verifying that AI or a machine has done the work well and done it to like what we need it to be. obviously there's like certain specifications that we have to abide by, which we get from our customers. So we have to make sure that like if we are automating our processes, they're being done correctly. So Yeah, there's definitely I don't think we can really outsource that part. We can outsource the the manufacturer, but we can't really Yeah do the the quality outsource. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Cool. All right. The Zyaire, what was your question, Zyaire? my question was, do you think this career choice is beneficial to me and my other, you know, classmates? I think a f career in medical device in general or any of like the health industries is beneficial for everyone, not just you guys. Like you'll if you do choose to be in the health industry, like you'll learn so much. And it's like really fulfilling to know that not only are you like learning for yourself and just building skills that you can carry throughout your entire life, not just like you can really build these skills and take them anywhere in any career, but to also know that like being in medical devices, these are devices that are going to go into somebody and they're like life-saving, preventable, like diseases, they're devices to help somebody live, essentially. So I think that if you truly enjoy like helping people and you want to make a difference in that way, then yeah, I think it's it's a good career choice. Cool. Andre, what about you? So so what advice would you give to a high schooler student? Who was interested in becoming a quality engineer in the future? That's good. I'm trying to think of what I would tell myself in high school. Like I knew, I knew I wanted to do something in the sciences, but I didn't know that this career even existed. I would definitely because I know that you can like grow in this career, and it's not like you have to have your P's and Q's, everything needs to be aligned as soon as you enter. I would probably just make sure that you're focused and you understand the impact that you'll have. Cause this you hold a lot of weight in what you do because, like I said, these are implantable implantable devices. They're going to somebody's body. You need to make sure that you understand the impact that this is gonna have on like saving someone's life, essentially. So as long as you're like truly understanding. I think anyone can do this, to be honest. if you really want to do something, like you can do it. There's ways, there's ri so many resources. Like for high school students, I feel like just be focus and have a good understanding, maybe do a little bit of research behind the roles and the responsibilities of the role, but I think anyone can honestly do it. Good advice, I like that. All right, Harmony, what you got? Hi. what global changes do you feel your company has made? So we are actually a global company. We just merged. So DSM, when I joined this company, I joined about three and a half years ago. it was just DSM, and then we merged with a company called Ferminish. now we're DSM Firmenich And DSM is a Dutch company. It stands for Dutch State Minds. And the Firmenich I think, is a Swiss company. so we are a global company. We're a global company. And I know we make an impact that way. Yeah, awesome. Jaquan, what about you? my question was have any other engineering jobs piqued your interest? love, love that question. Because the answer is yes. So when I first I started at like a pharma giant called MERC before I got here, and that was my first quality engineering job. ever since coming here. And being in the medical device instead of pharmaceuticals, I've got to see a few other engineering roles hands-on. And I feel like manufacturing is actually what I'm getting my master's in. Manufacturing engineering is really interesting to me. That's more of like that's definitely hands-on. I feel like quality engineering is a little bit more computer-based. Like you do have things where you're like doing analyses, but you're not so hands-on. Manufacturing engineering is more like You're looking at equipment, you're going into assess what's going on with the process. it's very much hands-on. And I I do enjoy that. So I think that that has piqued my interest. We also have what's called continuation engineering, which is like where we've developed a product line. You go through the process, you already know the outcome from start to finish. But continuation engineering is like an extension essentially. So like if I have product A and I say, okay, well, I like this, but I wanted to make it a little Maybe I'll make product A1. continuation engineers will essentially design how to make product A1, mimicked against product A. But I think that that's also pretty cool. as far as engineering rules, I think those are the only two that I've like, aside from my current role, those are the only two that I really may dabble in. Very cool. All right, Pierre, what about you? for my last question, I just wanted to know do your company offer any internships or programs for high schoolers or college students who are willing to come into this field? Yes. So we actually have internships and we have co ops. So for our interns, they're summer based. So they're like throughout the summer. I think it's just all a three month obviously program. They do that for pretty much every like business unit we've had interns who are marketing majors, we've had interns who are communications majors. Like we ha we don't cater our intern like choices, I guess, to like science fields. We kind of just cast the net and then see who's out there. for co-ops, it's similar to the internship, but we do a lot of co-ops through Drexel because they have the rotation where they have to do co-ops essentially. so for for colleges, it's a little Drexel is like our main school, but we do have co-ops from other schools. Like I know we had one from I think they came from Clemson. We had some from Temple. we do have also co-ops that go into different fields. So it's not just specific to the sciences, but yeah we have quite a few opportunities for for college mainly. As far as high school, we don't really have anything because I believe both of those roles are paid roles. I don't think we have anything for like high school at the moment. Okay. Jaquan, I saw you raise your hand one more time. Yes. My question was do you think you would be in this career of engineering for the rest of your life or do you feel like your mind would change to with another science career? I don't think I'll do it for the rest of my life. My true passion is climate change and sustainability. So I probably will transition out of this sort of engineering, maybe do some sort of like environmental engineering. I really want to work either with I don't know if I want to work with the DEP, the Department of Environmental Protection, or the EPA. But I do want to do something with sustainability. So I probably will transition out of something out of this into something more of an environmental engineering role. What a cool question to get some interesting tidbit of information there, Jaquan. All right. I saw all three hand ra all three hands raised. So Andre, what you got? how do you make sure the company's product meet the safety and quality standards before they get into the customer's hands? That's a good question. So aside from having our process routers, which are essentially just like operating procedures, you follow the guidelines, you say, okay, this is how I make the product. because there are instances where you're making the product and something does go wrong, in order to like mitigate those risks, we have checks and balances. So we have the whole sort of quality process to document things that go wrong and be stop our process. If we were to find an issue, we stop our process. We assess the issue and then we continue. If like to even catch the issue in the first place, we have set our systems up to where they get flagged if something's out of whack essentially or out of spec. so that's how we catch them. Sometimes there's also cases, and this isn't specific to our company, but there's cases where they even go further than the company. So you you manufactured something that was out of specification and it gets in the hands of your customer, it can come back as a complaint from the customer. If the customer doesn't catch in and it goes even further, then you have implications for like the standards that you're not complying to as far as like FDA or like other higher conglomerates, I guess. but yeah, so we have checks and balances to make sure that nothing really goes wrong. And if they do, then we also have like other checks and balances. So that we can fix it. what college did you go to and what do you think inspired you to go on the path that you are n on are on now? That's great. so actually I I'm into a few different colleges. I transferred. when I so I grew up in the Poconos, like I said, but I knew that I wanted to move out of the Poconos. Like there's only maybe two or three colleges within the Poconos, and I knew that I didn't want to go to any of those. So my freshman year I did at Chestnut Hill, which I don't know if you guys are familiar with, but it's like a private Catholic school in Germantown. And then after my freshman year, I transferred and I think throughout that summer, I did like two summer courses at a community college. And I transferred to Bloomsburg University, which is like an hour away from the Poconos, like where I lived in the Poconos at least. And that's where I graduated from. And did you have a second part of that question? it was what do you think inspired you to be on the path that you're on today? okay. That that is I think honestly, if I'm telling the truth, I was in the fourth grade when I learned about Al Gore. And I obviously, as a 10-year-old, I can't vote. And I knew that he was running for president. And it was like a random thing. I, as a 10-year-old, I don't watch the news. I don't even know how it came about that I found out about this man. And I knew that he was running on his whole thing was like climate change. So I got really into the sciences, into recycling, into all of the the things like natural sciences. And that kind of continued into middle school. And when I got to middle school in eighth grade, I had this really good earth science teacher. And I really loved her and she taught me so much. And that's when I really realized that like, I think I definitely want to do something in the sciences. And then I just continued like my love for science throughout high school. And then when I got to college, I was like, I know I want to do either chemistry or biology. So I actually majored in, well, I started majoring in biochemistry. And I quickly realized that I didn't like the chemistry as much as I thought I did. So then I switched to biology. And yeah, I went through three different like biology specifications. and I landed on just general biology. So yeah, it all started in the fourth grade. Before you got to the current role you were in, what other jobs have you had to that got you here? And then Zyaire, we're coming to you. let's see. So when I first started working, I was working in retail. Like I was just it was like my I think after my freshman year, I was like, I need money. So I started working in retail. I worked there's an outlet mall in the Poconos, which is like we have like a hundred or so stores. And it's really big and really nice. So I started working there and I worked at coach there for like years. And while I was in school and I would come back in the summers and the winters and I would still work there. And then once I graduated, I was like, all right, I want a big girl job. So I started working for Sanafi Pasture, which is another like pharma global giant. and I started working there because that was actually my dream in high school. It's like, I want to do something with vaccines. I want to figure out like how I can cure things. So I started working there and I worked on a yak a yellow fever vaccine. And I was at Sanafi for a little over two years, I think. And then I transitioned and I moved to Philly actually. And I started working in the lab sciences and I worked at Bushi Aptech, which I think just got acquired by someone. and I did that for another two years and then I went to Merck and I did that for like a year and a half maybe and then I came here. Awesome. Sounds like a very interesting career path right there. Okay. what kind of personal personal and professional you know developments did you go to I mean, go through while working in this career? Personal development. Do you want to elaborate? I would say I guess new skills that you picked up within this new job? Yeah. So personally, I think definitely my My communication, I think I was one to just not I don't want to say I talked at people, but I wasn't always such an active listener as I am now. so I think learn just communicating in a way that I'm listening to learn and understand and not just for like offer a rebuttal to whatever the person is saying, that's something that I developed both. personally and professionally because that skill set helps me every single day when I talk to anyone, even my family. I think professionally Critical thinking, like I said, that's the one thing that I think is that will take you so far in anything because being narrow minded and not understanding true true problems or getting to the root of problems is something that like will hinder you if you're able to like look at an it an instance or s a situation and understand, okay, this is what the issue is and like find your way from A to Z. That's like That'll take you so far in life. And I think that that's something that I like within the past three years truly understood how to do and I've honed in on that skill set. Awesome. All right. It's our turn to hear from the students. So we're going to shift gears just a little bit, Fiani. And each of these guys is going to introduce themselves to us, tell us their name, what grade they're in, a little bit about what interest they have inside or outside of school, maybe what some of their goals are. It's your introduction, guys, your time to shine. So whatever you want to tell us. All right, so Jaquan, kick us off. Okay, my name is Jaquan I'm in twelfth grade. And interest that I have inside of school is helping my peers, learning new concepts and learning new skills too. And things that interest me outside of school is exploring learning more about life and helping other like helping people out on the streets and helping others. Is something more about me, something I want to do. I do want to go to college to for get my bachelor's degree for engineering. main probably mechanical engineering. 'cause I'm more of like a hands on person. I like being hands on. yeah, that's from here. Awesome. Fioni what wisdom or encouragement could you share with Jaquan to help him move toward that goal? Yeah, I love hearing that you want to do mechanical engineering. That's like I think honestly, manufacturing and mechanical engineering go hand in hand. we do, I said, a lot of hands-on equipment things within manufacturing, not just process engineering. But like I said, I'm also getting my masters and a lot of my classmates are also doing their masters in mechanical engineering. So I've learned like a little bit about that field. It's really cool. I think as long as you're like focused on like your sciences, your maths, like you'll go really far. I don't think that there's really Anything that you can't learn in college. I know you said you do want to go to school. So do you have an idea of where you want to go? Is that is that like mechanical engineering is like your top and you have like other or is like like mechanical engineering and that's it? Well, mechanical engineering wasn't like my top pick. It was one of my engineering picks and other engineering things I wanted to do was Either aerospace or electrical engineering. Nice. Okay. Yeah. I mean any of those, honestly, they pretty much all have the same like educational background as far as like before you get to college. yeah, I because I did mine in biology, well my undergrad at least, I don't really have like the I don't really know exactly what it takes. I just know from what I hear from the people who did their undergrad in engineering that it's a lot of work, but I know it pays off and it's also just I guess how you manage your time. I think time management is probably like the greatest skill that you can have if you're going to do an undergrad in any sort of engineering field. Awesome. And I heard a lot in what you were saying, Jaquan, about little traits of leadership. So I have no doubt you can do it even if it is hard work. what about you, Zyaire? my name is Zyaire I'm in 12th grade. some of my interests in school is I would say currently that's new, physics. I'm I like helping people out as far as mentally talking to people. outside of school, my interests are nature, reading, such as learning new things about my religion. And Currently I'm learning about psychology because that's something I wanna do when I graduate from out of here. And you know, that's something that I feel like plays a big part in my life. So that's all that's cool. Fioni, is there anywhere anywhere where like that natural curiosity that comes with psychology and being interested in people and that kind of thing could fit in in the biomedical or quality engineering fields? I honestly, when he was talking, I was thinking about clinical psychology. That's we don't have a role at our. I don't know if that's like something really within the medical device fields. but I also was looking to get my master's in clinical psychology. And I do have a few friends who got their masters in clinical psychology. So in doing that, I know that it kind of like merges psych and mental health and mental science, I guess, behavioral science. I feel like that's probably something that I would look into if I were you because it's psych based, but it also does offer like a neuro aspect to it. And I feel like because you're your interest in like helping people, I think You would really enjoy that. Very cool. There had you heard of that before, clinical clinical psychology? I think I have when, you know, going through the list psychologists, but that doesn't sound too bad and that might be something I'll look into, but I was looking into more so environmental environmental psychology or just just looking inside the field to see what else I can learn about it. What did you learn from or what did you find from looking into environmental psychology? I guess more so the aspect of how the environment plays the role within the mental aspects of the, you know, the person who is surrounded in the area. and that's something that, you know, I've seen growing up and I feel like that's something that I can personally connect to. So that's yeah the field I would like to be in. Yeah, I like that. That's that's interesting. That is really interesting. I had the same inch the same question, Fiani. So that's really cool. All right, Andre, you're in the hot seat, but not really. It's low pressure. Tell us about yourself. all right. My name is Andre I'm in 12th grade. some interest that that I that I'm interested in inside of school is like me, I mean like I get my work done and I go to basketball practice literally. right after that. but outside of school, career wise, some some things that I wanna pursue hands on maybe is masonry or welding. I don't know. I really just like I just wanna find a career that's like hands on. That's really yeah. Yeah. So I feel like Fioni, maybe you could even speak to a little bit the importance of the hands-on and the welding and the people that put stuff together as being the quality engineer on the back end of that, watching that happen. a little bit to maybe like just some ideas of what that kind of work could look like somewhere like your place. Yeah. So at our facility, we have a model shop here, and they're responsible for pretty much like fixing and building all the equipment. that either breaks or we need some model of something. so that's probably a good like role or department for you to look into. I feel like if you do like masonry, you like welding, that like model shop. I don't know if they have like more specific title, but I know we refer to them as the model shop. I think that would be a really good role for you. It's definitely hands on. I've been back there. I was actually back there last week. And it's it's it's a lot of heavy metal. It's a lot of like moving parts, a lot of machines. But I think for someone like you, if you really do enjoy like welding and things like that, are you interested in doing like trade school? Is that what you're you're pursuing instead of just a four-year? Okay. Well I mean yeah, if you do decide to go to trade school and you want to pursue something after, I would look into like model modeling for device like medical devices or really anywhere because that I know a lot of automotive industries have that. Like within the medical device industry, that would be the only thing that I could think of. Like our model shops for like equipment repair and things like that. I would feel like hospitals even have obviously they have a lot of machinery and equipment and a lot of our stuff we do outsource to the manufacturer of the like machine itself. but if you worked for that company, you could it's like there's a There's a travel aspect. don't know if that interests you, but there's a travel aspect you can go around the country fixing things. So that could be interesting too. That can be really interesting. I don't know. To me that sounds interesting. Yeah, it's funny. I love traveling. What about you, Andre? Does that sound neat? Would you like to travel and see the country while you get paid to fix stuff? I ain't gonna lie, I would like to travel the world and you know and yeah. I think looking look into something like that, like with machinery and fixing machines and hospitals is probably a really good business to get into. Obvious companies, smaller companies as well, but I think hospitals is like maybe a little easier. You may have to like join the actual company who like manufactures the equipment first, but I think after that it's probably just a simple role switch. Very cool. All right, Harmony, introduce us to you. Hi, my name is Hermony my interest inside of school right now is volleyball, trying to make it to the playoffs, focusing a lot in anatomy and using up as much time as I can in my AP classes outside of school. I am a youth advocate, so advocating for teens inside of Philadelphia, trying to hold up the title of being advocate of the year throughout Pennsylvania and then just working to like branch myself out more and then also inside of school my senior project it goes kind of hand in hand in like what I'm doing. I want to do my project on how Women are treated during childbirth, mainly African American women, during child labor. and so basically like advocating for women and stuff. So yeah. I wanna know tell us one thing that you're advocating currently for in the city of Philadelphia for teen. So right now it's it's been an ongoing thing since ninth grade, but it's called the Clean Indoor Air Act. We basically advocate at City Hall or testify, I've testified once, to city councils about trying to make in the loophole of smoking in public spaces like hotels and it's like other places, like basically smoking in like open spaces where workers and like other people around have to like inhale secondhand smoke and then closing like Some stores or secondhand stores they sell to minors and they don't check for IDs. We advocate for teens being able to buy tobacco at like this age. Wow. Very, very cool stuff. All right. Fioni, what do you have for Harmony? What kind of thoughts towards working to her goal? her goals in life do you have for her? Yeah, I mean, that was really impressive to be honest. I've at like your age, I probably wasn't thinking about advocating for anything except for the environment and I wouldn't have known where to start. So it's really nice to hear that you're doing you've done things and you've been doing this since ninth grade. as far as working, I know you said you're taking A P classes, you're interested in anatomy. Is there are you interested in pursuing like pre-med? Do you want to go to school? Like what's your what's your goal there? I want to major public health and then minor political science. I want to be a OBGYN OBGYN, so I do wanna like get my full like bach bachelors, masters, doctors. I do like my big goal is to be OBGYN. But if I like later wanna change that path, I wanna go into like politics and stuff like that. Nice. That's good. I mean You could do the whole med school route. I mean, people do med school at any any age in life. You could do that whenever you want. So if you do want to focus on like political science right now and then maybe just have like a degree to fall back and then do med school, you could do that. I know there's also like I know you've probably heard of like doulas. You could be a duela that's another lesser where you don't have to go through eight years of schooling. medical school is is no joke. And obviously you probably already know that, but medical school is is very challenging. Harmony, it sounds like you're doing great things. You're definitely on a path to get to that med school goal that you've got. and the doula thing could be really cool too. That could even be something you do while you're in school. That's true. just to start kind of getting your hands on moms and babies and having that positive influence in the room that I think you're looking for. So before Jaquan, if we have time at the end, we'll come back to that raised hand. but before we get there, and I just want to say you guys all have been super impressive. We hear so much about, you know, like the kids today, the kids today. You guys have all been well spoken. You've all got big dreams. you guys are all definitely going places. But let's hear from each of you guys one last time. I just want to hear what was your favorite thing that you heard today? One something that you heard from Fioni that you think will stick with you and you're gonna take away. Jaquan, we'll start with you. one thing that I took from her that I've always stick with me is really getting to know like what her job actually is. Cause before coming to the meeting, they told us that she was a quality engineer. And I kinda knew what it was, but I really didn't know what it was. when I looked into it kind of piqued my interest more about the engineering fields and Yeah, that's that's that's really it. another thing is that how how much they actually how much time they actually take to making sure that the objects and the products are safe and require meet the requirements for the public and for the people's health. Yeah, it was black and white and there's rules and regulations, right? But you could also hear her passion and her love for it behind it too. Yeah, it was really cool. Zyaire, what about you? just to piggybig off what Kwan said, you know, just not knowing what the career was before coming into there and her actually giving us a very detailed you know, explanation on what it was and while also telling us more aspects of her career. I think, you know, it was a great learning experience because this might help one of us venture off into that career. at least not, you know, that specific one, but Yeah. Awesome. Andre, what you got for us? What's been your f what was your favorite takeaway? like I was gonna say, she said like the people around her and her job, they influenced her and her position to really like move forward, like her position. Yeah. Kinda like a basketball team, right? Your teammates encourage you to move forward and be better. Alright, Harmony, what about you? I heard her say to learn to listen and understand and rather than respond. I feel like that's sad because I feel like sometimes I have a problem I have a problem with like responding. Yeah. That's a good one. I had to remember that too. And I learned that lesson for sure as an adult much later in my professional life. Fioni, give us one one last quick closing thought for the group. Yeah, this was this is my first time doing like a panel like this, where it was more like interactive. Usually I'm just like talking to people about what our company does. So I really enjoyed this. I loved hearing what you guys are interested in. I I know that there's a career out there for every one of you. as long as you stick by what you want. Obviously you can change your mind a million times. Like I changed my mind in seven different types of sciences. So you you'll find your way just stay true to yourself. If you had any questions, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I don't go on LinkedIn that often, but if somebody reaches out with a question, I I usually go on to answer. but yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. Fioni, thank you for sharing your time and experience with us. Before we go, what's the website for DSM Ferminich? So the website is just dsmfirmenich.com Awesome. Students, take what resonated and keep exploring what's possible for you. This is Access Co Leaders and we'll see you next time. Thanks for being here.